[SlipKid]

Aggressively trail braking is a great way to roach your front tire in a hurry, that's for sure!

[WildKat]

[quote="paperairplane"]

2. Using a steady and progressive application of the brakes, with careful modulation, will prevent loss of control and skidding.

4. If the front provides most of the stopping power and in an emergency you can only focus on using one brake really well - why not focus on the one that can help you the most?

Thats a hard one to teach new riders..until you learn, and get used to how your bike operates, you really have to be careful how much front brake you grab. too little does nothing, and too much ends you up kissing the pavement. The best way is to yes, practice somewhere out of traffic, and see how your bike responds to different amount of applied braking pressure. Thats the best way to learn. The last thing anybody needs to do, is discover in an emergency situation how their brakes function.

[Mojoe]

A few points about motorcycle braking:

1. As you stop weight transfers forward, lightening the rear of the bike and making a rear tire lockup more likely. At the same time, front braking power is increased. On clean, dry pavement the front brakes of a sportbike provide more like 80% of the stopping power.

2. Using a steady and progressive application of the brakes, with careful modulation, will prevent loss of control and skidding.

3. In a panic situation most riders can only focus their control on one brake at a time. Not both. In fact, I believe the MSF states that if you try and use both brakes to full effect in an emergency that you will likely use neither to full effect.

4. If the front provides most of the stopping power and in an emergency you can only focus on using one brake really well - why not focus on the one that can help you the most?

5. Are there situations, types of bikes and reasons to use the rear brake more or less than the front? Of course there are - this is a huge topic. Poor road conditions, carrying a passenger, riding a bike with a lot of rear weight bias, trail braking into a corner, etc... Are they skills a rookie rider needs to think about, IMO not really. Master control and modulation of the front brake and then work on other things.

Go out into a parking lot and practice panic stops from 45mph - 0 and see how using the front only versus using the rear only versus using both works for you.

As for how to stop really hard - be progressive. Pull the brake lever until it startst to engage, then harder, then HARD, then REAL HARD. In some cases, you may never need to use more than just engaging the brake to stop. If you gradually increase the amount of pressure you apply to the lever, you can control the braking a lot more than if you just grab as hard as you can. I like to think of the brake the same way as you do the throttle - if you whack it WFO the front pops up and the bike is hard to control, but a nice quick roll on will give you better, smoother acceleration. How much of either you need is determined by what is going on...

And Mojoe, Captain America's chopper had no front brake what so ever - so it is certainly possible to ride with no front brake. In your case, riding a loaded bike, with no front brake, in traffic, 2 up - I bet you made some concessions with regard to speed and following distance because you knew that your stopping power was greatly reduced.

All good points, paperairplane, but again I would have to say that most of this applies to noobs. When you refer to what the MSF states, you have to take into consideration that when they quote that, 99% of the people they are quoting it to have little or no riding experience. My point being is that if you want to truly be a skilled rider, braking is part of it...and so is the rear brake. So if the MSF states that, it could be for those who just take what they learn in the course and go with that for the rest of their riding days. However some riders may learn that if they actually get out and seek to improve thier skills, they can defeat that theory. You have to remember that we live in a society where a plastic bag from a product in a box will have "do not place bag over head" stamped on it because some people are just plain stupid. Or "caution, filling is hot" will be on an apple pie from McD's. So the MSF has to assume that all dots have to be connected for the general public and kept simplified for them to get a grasp of it.
Even if you say the rear is only 20% and I feel that it can be more if properly done, 20% can still be the difference in taking 100ft to stop or 80ft. The bumper of that pickup in front of you can be in that last 20ft.
And yes, when I did have that ride home with a rear brake only, I rode with that in mind. However, you can only adjust your speed so much on a major highway. Poking along to slow is equally dangerous. In fact on 2 occassions on that ride, traffic did indeed come to a stop (it did often, but in these two cases it was different) I did not even consider trying to stop because I knew I wouldn't. So you also have to keep in mind other alternatives. In these to cases, my alternative was to switch off to the emergency lane then fall back into traffic when possible.
Common sense is your stongest asset to have on a bike.

[Selby]

Also, I HATE it when riders slalom around cagers in slow traffic. Pisses them off and as much as they annoy me, I don't blame them.

Occassionally see sport bikes doing this around here, but saw a *Goldwing* weaving in and out of traffic last weekend. The guy was freakin' nuts. All the way across 4 lanes of traffic and back, splitting lanes (this isn't legal or tolerated in Colorado), on both shoulders. Couldn't believe it.....

[WildKat]

I see that all the time around here, but not limited to sportbikes or 'wings...cruisers do it too.

[Crackshot]

*cough* not that _I_ ever did this....


but breaking while turning. BAD idea.

Again, I am going to have to assume that like paperairplane that you are referring to noobs with little experience....

So after reading some of the posts here, I guess my answer to this question is the lack of proper braking skills. Now I would hate to guess how many riders actually lack in this area. You should be able to brake in ANY situation. If I have to ride with you crackshot...and we are in the twisties, you take the lead...ok? hehe.

*grin*, actually, I said that out of experience. I had the bike for about 4 weeks and locked up the back wheel on a slow turn (15 mph). Then, (again stupid) i let go and dumped the poor girl. Now that I have about 7 months under by belt, I still assume I suck at it *grin*. I still slightly use the breaks on turns when cars in front of me are breaking, you just gotta be more careful